Team vs. Individual Feedback

As with the discussion around metrics, keep in mind that some feedback should be generalized to the team, and some should be generalized to the individual. Usually this will go hand-in-hand with the metrics being gathered and examined, but it is often the case that a manager will want to praise a team for the work they’ve done while privately speaking with individuals to provide coaching and guidance.

When providing the team with feedback, think carefully about whether to call out individuals within that context—while it’s certainly appropriate to celebrate an individual’s accomplishments, team members will notice if the praise is overtly centered around just one or two members. While you certainly don’t need to “keep score” to ensure that each team member is given an equal amount of time in the praise spotlight, you also want to make sure you are staying in touch with each member of the team to have opportunities to call their wins out in a semi-public (that is, team-wide) setting.

Anonymous vs nominative feedback: One element that often comes up in any feedback setting is that of anonymity of the feedback donor: the theory is that individuals will feel more capable of offering up more candid feedback if they are allowed to be anonymous, because the recipient of the feedback won’t be able to retaliate in any way. While anonymous feedback is likely a necessary element of “feedbacking up” (the org chart) to give high-level executives feedback about what the rank-and-file feel or see, within a team, I’m not convinced that anonymous feedback is all that helpful—or anonymous. Additionally, if the feedback is to be concrete, it often needs to be something of a conversation, so that details and nuances can be explored and discussed, which is impossible to do if the source of the feedback is not available.

Additionally, look for opportunities to call out your team’s wins in a broader setting, such as a division or departmental meeting. If you are asked to receive an award on your team’s behalf, for example, it is absolutely right and proper to defer all praise to the team—after all, they did the work. (Even if the team isn’t there to hear it directly, they’ll find out about it through the grapevine.) Even a team filled with introverts and publicity-averse individuals will feel a sense of pride and reward when the team is being praised (and they don’t have to be on stage to feel all those eyes looking at them individually).